13 Aug Real Estate Property Line and The Law
Real estate can be tricky, especially when homes that have been lived in for years and years do finally go up for sale (there’s certain homes in the Billings area that are being sold for the first time in over a hundred years!) and issues can arise in the sale of these homes. Both the homeowner, the homebuyer, and neighboring homeowners, who have property abutting the for sale property, have rights under law. This isn’t to say that if you don’t like your new neighbor you have the right under law to prevent the sale, not at all. Here are a few hypotheticals (although very real scenarios which people deal with every single day) when someone’s rights, as pertains to a piece of property, need to be protected under the law.
Property boundaries can be a contentious issue. There are people who have lived as neighbors, families living next door to one another for years, with nothing separating the two properties but a hedge. What happens then when one of those properties goes for sale, and the property boundary is determined to be well beyond the hedge line in one direction or the other? What happens then when the new owners want to absorb the land that was originally thought to belong to the neighbor? What if, to absorb it means that the homeowner would need to remove decades-old landscape? What if they wanted to add an eight-foot boundary fence down that property line, pullout the hedge entirely?
While it sounds cut and dry—the people buying the land would consume the property of the other person as by right under the sale of the home—both parties have both a financial interest in the sale, and one party has an emotional interest vested in the sale. This is the time for an attorney. This is the time to make sure not only that land surveys are performed correctly, but also that people’s rights are protected under the law. An experienced, qualified attorney, who has dealt with similar cases, can be your greatest asset to ensure that you are indeed protected.
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